The Mooney Documents
| Note to the reader: The information presented in these Mooney Memo's was uncovered by George J. Veith in the microfilm rolls of the Library of Congress (LOC). Jay wrote these Memo's over a period of three months. The only piece missing from the original Memo's is a section in Memo 1 that contained an unredacted NSA message that still had classified Code-word material on it. Although he found it in an open source, it is not included here to prevent any unnecessary interference from the National Security Agency (NSA). Please read these Memo's as a complete body. It will help you understand the evolution of the research, and provide an insight into the workings of one of America's most secret government organizations, NSA. If anyone wishes to further investigate the NSA material at the LOC, please contact Jay Veith and he can provide you the Reel numbers. |
| November 21, 1995 Al Santoli Office of the Hon. Robert Dornan Washington, DC Dino Carluccio Dear Al and Dino: As you know, former NSA analyst Jerry Mooney has presented testimony on the POW/MIA issue for many years. He has insisted that NSA monitored North Vietnamese communications indicating the capture and imprisonment of many American pilots, men who never returned from communist captivity. For his efforts, he has been called a liar by DIA, his analysis the result of "intellectual musings." One of the most important pieces of information Mooney has related is
the 1972 execution of 10 Americans, an event Jerry was deeply involved in. This story was
published in the book The Bamboo Cage by Nigel Cawthorne. (See page labeled 1 of my fax.)
Until now, there has been no documentation |
QUOTED FROM:
The Bamboo Cage - The full story of the American Servicemen still held hotage in Southeast
Asia
by Nigel Cawthorne, Leo Cooper Press
Revenge execution was permitted if it was necessary for the morale of the unit. This was generally employed by the subordinate units of Division 367 to avenge a 'Sown' - a VIP, a cadreman or above- who was killed by the Americans in an air strike. Normally, only one PoW would be killed, but as many as ten were executed at High Point 310 following the death of the commander of Division 377/673 during a bombing raid.
Page 40
In late 1972, a Sown of Division 673/377 was killed by an American airstrike.
The next pilot downed in that area was executed by a single bullet in the
head. One of the following was executed: Leonard Robertson, William Price,
Bobby Jones, Dwight Rickman, John Peacock, Ralph Chipman, Ronald Forrester,
Jack Harvey, Francis Townsend, Lee Tigner, Peter Cleary, Charles Darr, Wayne
Brown. (7) The rest were probably killed in an airstrike or worked to death as
slave labour. Leonard Robertson's co-pilot Alan Kroboth was told by the Viet
Cong that Robertson was dead. Kroboth himself was returned in 1973.
Earlier in 1972, another more chilling incident had taken place though. Mooney
had analysed intelligence that revealed that '10 enemy' were being taken to a
High Point 310, south of Khe Sanh, to be executed. It was not revealed if they
were South Vietnamese servicemen, American or both. A recent airstrike which
had killed a very important Sown - probably the commander of Division 673/377
- strongly indicated that at least some of those who were going to be killed
were American. Time was of the essence. The data had been received and decoded
at Fort Meade just a few hours before the executions were to take place. There
was still time to alert the commanders in the field in Vietnam for a possible
rescue mission, but they would have to move fast.
Mooney's immediate superiors would not let him release the information until a
higher authority reviewed it. They did not want to make a mistake that could
embarrass the agency. The problem was the 'higher authority' was out to lunch.
So Mooney sat and waited. Two hours later the officer returned. He gave his
approval and released the report without changing a word. But by then it was
too late. Ten men - possibly Americans - on the other side of the world were
dead, all because one officer, thousands of miles from the combat zone, was
late back from lunch.
Mooney has some candidates for these executions. On 18 June, 1972, an AC130A carrying Mark Danielson, Gerald Ayres, Larry Newman, Richard Cole, Paul Gibert, Leon Hunt, Robert Harrison, Donald Klinke, Stanley Lehrke, Jacob Mercer, Richard Myhof and Robert Wilson was flaktrapped by anti-aircraft Regiment 218. Three of the occupants survived the shootdown. One was Danielson, another possibly Mercer. They would not have been returned for security reasons in any event and might possibly have been executed at High Point 310.
| I have discovered the declassified, albeit redacted, NSA cable describing the executions of 10 Americans, giving all the details exactly as Mooney described them. (See page labeled 2 of my fax.) |
[NOTE: BLANK AREAS WERE REDACTED/ $ WERE IN ORIGINAL TEXT] 2
1891548
Z 071545Z JUL 72 FM TO
NVN 377TH AIR DEFENSE DIVISION PLANS TO EXECUTE 10 AMERICANS
ON 6 JULY, THE NVN 377TH AIR DEFENSE DIVISION (UNLOCATED, LOWER QUANG BINH
PROVINCE) THE 284TH AAA REGIMENT AND DIRECTED THE EXECUTION OF 10
AMERICANS. $ON 8 JULY.
CADRES
SHALL BE LEFT BEHIND TO KILL THE 10 AMERICANS.
COMPLETE THE TASK AND RETURN
THE 284TH AAA REGIMENT DEPARTED QUANG TRI CITY ON 5 JULY AND IS
PRESENTLY LOCATING IN THE AREAS OF CAM LO (16-49N 107-00E), DONG LON (16-47N
107-05E) AND TAN VINH (16-46N 107-06E)
| The last cable, labeled 4, is the type of message traffic he was seeing that created his belief in the "Warm Body Count" scenario, whereby the Vietnamese were intent on capturing as many prisoners alive as possible to fool Kissinger at the Paris Peace Talks. |
[NOTE: BLANK AREAS WERE REDACTED/ $ WERE IN ORIGINAL TEXT] 4
M = 156
0982239
072148Z APR 72 FM TO
QUANG BINH PROVINCIAL UNIT REGARDING CAPTURED ALLIED PILOTS
THE QUANG BINH PROVINCIAL UNIT HAS GUIDANCE ON THE HANDLING OF CAPTURED ALLIED PILOTS. ON 7 APRIL, ALL 12.7-MM ANTIAIRCRAFT UNITS TO $MAKE PLANS FOR CAPTURING PILOTS, $ THE HQ, QUANG BINH PROVINCIAL UNIT ANY UNIT WHICH CAPTURES PILOTS IS TO $AVOID CROWDED AREAS$ AND IS TO $ADOPT A PROPER ATTITUDE TOWARD THE PRISONERS.$ THE $PROPER ATTITUDE$ WAS DEFINED BY THE PROVINCIAL UNIT AS PROHIBITING ITS SUBORDINATES FROM $BEATING PRISONERS OR TAKING THEIR PERSONAL PROPERTY $ ACCORDING TO THE ORDERS, ONLY WEAPONS ARE TO BE TAKEN FROM CAPTURED PILOTS.
| I hope you find this information useful. Jerry asked that
I spread this to the POW/MIA community. My question to you is, "Will this have any
impact?" Sincerely, Jay Veith Enclosures: (4) Information on the Execution Message The information you have just read basically applies to the Execution message also, except Mooney says he actually wrote this message, and it is from Director, NSA to all the important agencies, like DOD. The 377th was part of the 673 Air Division. Both belonged to the 367th Air Defense Division. These units lead the invasion South during the Easter offensive. They maintained constant contact with their parent unit using Soviet R109 radios, which are low power, low VHF, constant wave. Because of the low power, they had to be routed through commo-liaison stations at Ben Thanh in the DMZ, which then routed them to a switchboard located in the Thach Ban/Long Dai region. They maintained this communications on constant wave electronic signal with Hqs, MR-4, (home of Gen. Quang of 1205 fame), near Vinh, and from there to the Joint Command Hqs in Hanoi. These planned executions were authorized all the way up the chain of command, including General "I never handled any American POWs" Quang, to the Politburo in Hanoi. Jerry further told me that the 284th AAA regiment was one of their top 5 AAA regiments. The blanked out portioned refers to the exact time and coordinates for the execution. As we all know, the message sat in someone's in box until he returned from lunch. This man, known as the Group Senior Analyst Linguist, approved the message without changing a word. Any mistakes or omissions are strictly my fault, and not that of Jerry Mooney. |